Toward the end of Setting the Family Free by Eric D. Goodman, one of the main characters thinks about what has to be done to “end this bloody twenty hours, thereby closing the darkest ordeal of his life,” but he can’t bring himself to do it. The fact that he is so conflicted is indicative of the many opposing threads that Goodman weaves together to create suspense and compassion in this tale of the escape of dozens of exotic animals from a homemade zoo in Chillicothe, Ohio. It’s a compelling story told by a skillful, adventurous writer.

The novel opens with a series of comments about animals from famous people as well as fictional characters who play leading roles in the story that’s about to unfold.

Min Jin Lee’s
novel Pachinko opens with
this sentence: “History has failed us, but no matter.” While Lee’s emphasis in
the novel is aimed squarely on the “us” in that sentence, I was captivated by
the history she explores, largely because my knowledge of it was sorely
lacking.

Pachinko
begins in Yeongdo, Korea, in 1910, the year the country was annexed by the
Empire of Japan after years of war and intimidation. During the occupation that
followed, Japan took over Korea’s labor and land and waged war on its culture.
Japanese families were given land in Korea, where they chopped down trees by
the millions and planted non-native species. Korean workers were forced to work
in Japan and its other colonies.

]]>https://latelastnightbooks.com/2019/07/10/history-lessons-from-pachinko/feed/0TAYARI JONES AND AN AMERICAN MARRIAGEhttps://latelastnightbooks.com/2019/05/10/tayari-jones-and-an-american-marriage/
https://latelastnightbooks.com/2019/05/10/tayari-jones-and-an-american-marriage/#respondFri, 10 May 2019 12:00:36 +0000https://latelastnightbooks.com/?p=7265I’ve
been a fan of the writing of Tayari Jones since I read her novel Silver Sparrow
several years ago, so I approached her new novel, An
American Marriage, with a great deal of happy anticipation. I
was not disappointed. But then numerous awards organizations can’t be wrong.
Among the many honors An American
Marriage has won since its publication in 2018 are Oprah’s Book Club
selection, nomination by the American Booksellers Association for the 2019
Indies Choice Book of the Year Award, selection for the 2019 Women’s Prize for
Fiction shortlist, and selection as a finalist for the Los Angeles Times book prize.

All of these groups had various reasons for honoring An American Marriage, but for me the joy of reading the novel sprang from two main sources: Jones’s fresh approach to what could have been a hackneyed story and the beautiful simplicity of her writing.

In my review
of The Bookshop of Yesterdays in January, I talked about the novel’s complex
interweaving of different types of stories, including a mystery, an adventure
story, a love story, and a tribute to literature. This month I’m pleased to haveBookshop’s author, Amy Meyerson, tell
us some of how she created this bestselling novel, which will be translated
into nine languages. Amy teaches in the writing department at the University of
Southern California, where she completed her graduate work in creative writing.
She’s been published in numerous literary magazines and currently lives in Los
Angeles.

SW.
I really enjoyed the clues in the story’s scavenger hunts. How did you
approach writing the ones that weren’t direct quotes?

AM. There are three different scavenger hunts in the novel, two from Miranda’s childhood and the one her uncle sends her on in the present day of the book.

A
good novel delves deep into the psyches of its characters while also telling a
story that’s intriguing enough to keep the reader turning pages. The Bookshop of Yesterdays by Amy
Meyerson succeeds on both fronts by weaving three different types of stories about
the same people into a seamless whole.

First,The Bookshop of Yesterdays is an
adventure story developed through a clever scavenger hunt. For the first twelve
years of her life, Miranda Brooks spends happy hours following the clues to scavenger
hunts designed by her Uncle Billy. Then, after a hunt that leads Miranda to the
puppy she’s always wanted but her mother refuses to let her keep, Uncle Billy
disappears, and she doesn’t hear from him again until just before his death 16
years later.

]]>https://latelastnightbooks.com/2019/01/10/for-the-love-of-people-books-history-and-adventure/feed/0THERE ARE GREAT NOVELS AND THEN THERE ARE CLASSICShttps://latelastnightbooks.com/2018/11/10/there-are-great-novels-and-then-there-are-classics/
https://latelastnightbooks.com/2018/11/10/there-are-great-novels-and-then-there-are-classics/#respondSat, 10 Nov 2018 12:00:52 +0000https://latelastnightbooks.com/?p=6893At a recent book club meeting, one of our members remarked that because the club had such mixed feelings about the novel Exit West, it likely wouldn’t become a classic. “A classic,” he said, “has to have good writing, characters we care about, a good story, and a deeper meaning.” Since we couldn’t agree about the characters or the writing, Exit West fell short.

A lot of scholars, writers, editors, and others in the literary world have defined “classic literature,” and doing a little research on the subject, I found that most of the definitions are similar to what my book club member suggested. Mark Twain had the most succinct definition—“a book which people praise and don’t read”—but assuming novels are read, I think the true standard for classic is that the novel has stood the test of time.

]]>https://latelastnightbooks.com/2018/11/10/there-are-great-novels-and-then-there-are-classics/feed/0HOW TO BE A GOOD BOOK CLUB MEMBERhttps://latelastnightbooks.com/2018/09/10/how-to-be-a-good-book-club-member/
https://latelastnightbooks.com/2018/09/10/how-to-be-a-good-book-club-member/#respondMon, 10 Sep 2018 12:00:38 +0000https://latelastnightbooks.com/?p=6733Although I’ve been an avid reader most of my life, I have never joined a book club. Until now.

In years past, I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to keep up with the reading pace of a club or the selections wouldn’t appeal to me and I would miss out on reading books I really wanted to read. But then I uprooted my life, moved to a new state, and decided to be open to whatever reasonable opportunities came my way. One of the first opportunities I saw was a book club in my new community, so I plunged right in.

Now here I am, trying to understand the workings of my particular book club and how to be a good contributor.

]]>https://latelastnightbooks.com/2018/09/10/how-to-be-a-good-book-club-member/feed/0BAD HISTORY CAN MAKE GOOD FICTIONhttps://latelastnightbooks.com/2018/07/10/bad-history-can-make-good-fiction/
https://latelastnightbooks.com/2018/07/10/bad-history-can-make-good-fiction/#respondTue, 10 Jul 2018 12:00:47 +0000https://latelastnightbooks.com/?p=6638Inspiration for good novels can come from anywhere. Sometimes stories spring from experiences in the author’s life. Other times they explore experiences the author never had but wonders about. Recently I read two very good novels that were heavily influenced by horrific events of the recent past, and they started my thinking about how authors can use such events to give life to engrossing characters and spellbinding stories.

The first novel, Before We Were Yours, draws on the history of the Tennessee Children’s Home Society, run by Georgia Tann in Memphis during the first half of the twentieth century. The Society was well respected until the 1940s when authorities discovered that Tann had destroyed most of the adoption papers to cover up how many children were taken illegally from their parents to be offered to film stars and other wealthy clients for exorbitant adoption fees.

]]>https://latelastnightbooks.com/2018/07/10/bad-history-can-make-good-fiction/feed/0AN IDEA THAT MATTERShttps://latelastnightbooks.com/2018/03/10/an-idea-that-matters/
https://latelastnightbooks.com/2018/03/10/an-idea-that-matters/#respondSat, 10 Mar 2018 12:00:33 +0000https://latelastnightbooks.com/?p=6379The first thing that intrigued me about the novel I’m about to review was the title: The Book That Matters Most. With all the great books in the world, choosing one that matters most seems nearly impossible, so I was curious to see where the author would lead me. The second thing that intrigued me was the main character, Ava, whose husband has recently left her for a woman who attempts to personalize public places by covering objects with colorful yarn.

But the deeper I got into the novel, I found I was most captivated by the idea that novels have the power to change lives. I’ve written before about the way fiction can decrease readers’ needs to reach quick conclusions in their thinking and to avoid ambiguity and confusion.

When I was on a tour at the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Museum in Williamsburg, Va., a guide asked me if I knew what folk art is. I’m an antique collector, and I’ve seen a lot of what I thought was folk art, but I don’t have an exact definition.

The guide suggested that folk art is created by artists who have no formal training in art. Consequently, she said, most folk art paintings lack perspective or at best have very primitive use of perspective, such as outlines. As an example, she pointed out the dark spots beneath the children’s hands in one of Edward Hicks’ versions of “The Peaceable Kingdom.” The painting she was talking about, which hangs in the museum, is shown at left.